


Step Four

by Phelpsgirlxxx



Series: Touch [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Pain, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pain, Touch Aversion, Touch-Starved, Touching, tiredness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29851014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phelpsgirlxxx/pseuds/Phelpsgirlxxx
Summary: First was Will, then Annabeth, then Piper.Next, Jason.Part 4 in the 'Touch' series.-better than summary
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: Touch [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2045401
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	Step Four

**Author's Note:**

> Part four :D
> 
> If all goes well I'm getting my first covid vaccine tomorrow eep. I also have an opticians appointment as I think my prescription got worse ugh.

Will knocked lightly on the door to the Hades cabin, ears pricked in hopes of hearing any sound from inside. Nico hadn’t turned up at breakfast, and although when he did it wasn’t always the case he’d eat, he always tried, so he would always turn up, especially since being sat at the Apollo table. So when Nico hadn’t turned up to breakfast, Will had been rightfully concerned.

“Nico?” Will called as he knocked again.

Only silence came from the Hades cabin, and Will sighed. He understood the need to sometimes be left alone, of course he did, but he wanted to make sure Nico was okay before he did that. What if his boyfriend had shadow travelled and knocked himself out? What if he was injured? Or sick? No, Will was sure he’d have to check before leaving Nico alone if that’s what he wanted.

Plus Nico had plans with Jason for the day, especially since it was the son of Zeus’ last day at camp. He’d been visiting for a few days on his christmas break, but he was heading back to school in California, where he’d been living since he and Piper had broken up. The son of Jupiter and the son of Hades had intended to hang out just the two of them earlier, but it had been difficult to find the time, especially with Chiron’s need for meetings with the son of Jupiter, so this was their last chance until they could see each other again.

“Nico, I need to come in and check you’re okay.” Will called after a few more moments of silence.

He once again heard nothing from inside, so carefully he inched open the door. He was immediately met with a wall of darkness, and he cursed slightly as he moved further into the room, shutting the door tight behind him.

“Nico, are you okay?”

The son of Apollo hurried towards Nico’s bed, being careful not to trip over the blanket that was at his feet. As he reached the bed, he frowned as he realised he couldn’t actually see Nico in the bed.

“Nico?”

“Will?” A voice croaked.

“Nico, what’s happening, are you okay?”

“I…”

“Nico, can I touch you?”

“No! Sorry, please don’t, I-”

“Hey, hey it’s okay death boy, you don’t have to beg me. If you don’t want me to touch you, I won’t touch you.”

“Thank you.” He whispered, his voice breaking slightly.

“Can you pull the shadows back so I can see you?”

“I can’t.”

“Nico… you’re not hurt and trying to hide it are you?”

“No… I’m fine. I’m just...only wearing shorts.”

Will blushed slightly.

“Okay, as long as you’re not hurt, that’s the main thing. Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”

Nico was silent for a few moments, but Will didn’t push. He knew sometimes it took a while for Nico to open up, he was so used to just pushing down his feelings that he sometimes found it hard to articulate exactly what he wanted to say, and it would take a while. Four months of stable living and friends didn’t overcome years of trauma. It was okay though, Will would wait forever for Nico to speak if he had to.

“Everything feels too much today,” Nico finally admitted, “like… I don’t know. The blankets made my skin feel itchy, and my pyjamas itched and made my skin feel tight and uncomfortable. I don’t know… it’s been a while since I’ve felt like this. I don’t know what it is. I… I don’t-”

“Hey, hey sunshine, it’s okay. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed hmm? You’ve had more social interaction in the past few months than you’ve had in a while. Maybe today everything just feels a bit much.”

“Yeah.” Nico breathed.

“Do you want to be alone today sweetheart?”

Silence fell in the cabin for a few moments, only broken by Nico’s slightly rasping breaths. It felt weird for Will to sit in a cabin of pitch black darkness and in pure silence. It was so much… less than what he was used to, but at that moment it made Nico feel more comfortable, made him feel safer, and so Will would do it forever if he had to.

“I think...I think maybe yes. Is that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay sweetheart. I’m going to grab you some water from your bathroom and put it on your bedside table and then I’ll go okay.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No.” He whispered.

“All right. I’ll bring you some food after dinner, just in case, but that’s not for a few hours yet.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s okay sweetheart, it’s okay. If you need me for anything come and get me, or leave a note on your door. I’ll probably pass by a couple of times today, okay?”

“Okay. Can… can you apologise to Jason for me?”

“Of course sweetheart, of course.”

Silence fell again and Will slipped into the bathroom to grab some water for Nico, tracing the familiar steps with ease. He was glad Nico was mostly an extremely clean person, and also didn’t own much as it made it easier to navigate in the darkness. As he reached Nico’s bedside table, he carefully placed the bottle of water on it before looking back at the bed out of habit even though he couldn’t see Nico.

“I’m going to go now, Neeks, but I’ll check in later, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks Will.”

“No problem.”

PJOHOOTOA.

Jason left Camp Half Blood that night reassuring Will he’d visit either during spring break or in the summer depending on how busy he was, especially with exams. He’d left a brief note to Nico to let him know he completely understood that he hadn’t been able to meet, and they’d see each other next time and they could work on Nico getting more used to physical touch. He also jokingly teased that in the meantime he sure Will would would happily fill the quota.

Nico had blushed violently at that when he’d read it two days later, and he’d refused to tell a laughing Will what the letter had said that had caused such a reaction.

Will had laughed it off saying Nico looked adorable when he blushed which didn’t help Nico’s blushing predicament at all.

It was a couple of days after Jason had left, and for the past one or two Nico had been feeling better, so he was curled up into Will’s side in the Apollo cabin while the slightly older boy ran his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair that Will asked.

“Do you want to try and get physical touch from more people, or do you want to wait a while?” Will asked casually as he continued his actions.

Nico thought about it for a few moments.

“I… I think I’d like to wait for a little while.”

“That’s fine sweetheart.”

“I just… I don’t know who else I’d ask other than Jason. I’m not super close to anyone else other than Hazel, but I don’t think I’ll be seeing her for a while.”

“Mmm.”

“So I think I’ll wait for Jason, and after that… I don’t know. I don’t think I’d be comfortable with anyone else, I’m not sure.”

Will stroked through Nico’s hair for a minute in silence.

“If there’s no one else you’re comfortable with for now, that’s fine Nico. You know you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. This is all up to you, and I’ll support you whatever your decision is.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me darlin’. Can I just ask… are you not comfortable with any of the others in the seven? I thought maybe some of the others, obviously you don’t have to answer or anything it’s just… curiosity.”

Nico shifted slightly to sit against the wall, although he didn’t completely shift away from Will’s side. For a moment he was silent, fiddling with his ring before he sighed deeply.

“I’m not exactly comfortable around most of the seven. I mean obviously I am around Hazel but I don’t know when I’ll get to see her next, same with Reyna, she’s not part of the seven, but I’m comfortable around her, but she’s very busy. I’m comfortable around Annabeth, and Jason of course, and I’m getting better around Piper, although I’m not sure when I’ll get to see her now and Jason have broken up, and what if she doesn’t want to be friends anymore because of it? What if I’m not meant to talk to Piper anymore because of it?” Nico panicked.

“Nico, sweetheart, it’s okay, it’s okay. Jason and Piper are both mature enough to not try and make you pick sides especially as it seems their breakup was amicable. Neither of them are likely to not want to be friends with you any more. Both of them adore you.”

Nico took a deep breath.

“Thanks Will, you always know what to do or say to make me feel better.”

Will involuntarily began to glow, making Nico snort. Will blushed cranberry, and immediately dimmed once again.

“Nerd.” Nico snorted.

“Hey! What you said was cute, I wasn’t expecting it.” Will muttered, playfully shoving his boyfriend’s shoulder.

Nico laughed, curling up against his boyfriend completely again. The first time he’d seen Will glow was after a nightmare in the infirmary, and the calm and peaceful aura it radiated had only made Nico’s affection for the boy grow, although they didn’t start dating for a while after that.

“You are cute.” Nico grumbled.

“Aww Nico!”

Nico scowled, but there was no malice behind it. He really enjoyed hanging with Will, and if complimenting Will would make him happy, he’d do it. He definitely preferred complimenting people rather than receiving compliments, how was he supposed to react to them? Thank the person? Plus, he blushed so easily that he hated it.

“To finish what I was saying, Frank is super uncomfortable around me, and, well Leo doesn’t like me for whenever he finally turns up.”

“Wait… wait what? I thought you were fine with everyone on the seven?” Will asked, shifting to look at his boyfriend.

Nico sighed.

“It’s… difficult. My time on the Argo II wasn’t...good.”

“How so?” He asked carefully as he carefully brushed Nico’s hair back.

“So for the first days I was there, I wasn’t well. After the jar and… you know… I could barely stand. I was too scared to sleep and I had no strength and stuff, I could barely talk, so I really only talked to Hazel, and they already had ideas about me so…”

“So they weren’t really open to talking to you.”

“Yeah… like I didn’t mind, not really, but… yeah so I spent all my time on top of the mast. It was quiet up there and I could see and hear everything. Leo wasn’t entirely fond of me.”

“Wait, you spent all your time on the mast?”

“Yeah?”

“What about sleeping, did you share with Hazel?”

Nico sighed.

“I slept on the deck.” He grudgingly admitted.

“What?!”

“They offered me Percy’s room but I refused, because… well you know.”

“I do. Did you have a bed of some sort at least?”

Nico shook his head.

“I told you, Leo wasn’t fond of me, and he had to keep the ship going so I just… slept with a blanket on the deck, but it’s okay I didn’t sleep much either way, there was no point in me having a bed anyway.”

“Even if you didn’t sleep much, Leo could still have made you a bed or offered another option. The Argo II was huge, and they didn’t have like a spare place under the deck you couldn’t have slept in, didn’t they have stables? Did they even have any horses?”

Nico shrugged.

“Wait, you said Leo wasn’t fond of you?”

“Yeah?”

Will paused.

“What did he say?” He asked.

“Nothing. Forget about it.” Nico muttered, turning to twist his ring again.

“Neeks, you don’t have to tell me sweetheart, not if you don’t want to, but if you want to tell me, you can. You can tell me anything, you know that.”

Nico sighed.

“It’s not even that bad.”

“If it bothers you, it matters Nico.”

Nico twirled his ring around his finger frantically.

“It’s okay Nico.” Will reassured him.

“I know at one point he said I sucked all the light from a room, but he didn’t know I’d heard that. He called me creepy and stuff a lot, and I know I am but-”

Will pulled his boyfriend tight against his chest, and he could feel tears beginning to slip down his own face. He hated how people automatically went against Nico when they met him because he wasn’t immediately open, was covered in scars and scowled a lot, as if he didn’t have reasons for all of them. He’d heard people say Nico looked ill half the time, but it wasn’t his fault. Nico had chronic pain and chronic fatigue, of course he sometimes looked ill, he was exhausted. Will made a mental note to remember he had to ask Chiron about getting walking aids for Nico for days he was struggling. It had taken a while to persuade Nico it was a good idea. Nico had been worried about it, even though he knew he needed it.

“Will, are you crying?” Nico asked softly.

“I’m sorry.”

Nico shifted to look at his boyfriend without pulling back from the embrace.

“You don’t need to apologise mio tesoro. I’m sorry for making you upset.”

“Nico, no, you didn’t make me upset, I just… I just wish people weren’t so bad to you.”

Nico just shrugged.

“I’ve grown used to it for the most part. I just wish people didn’t have these thoughts sometimes before they even met me.”

For a while the two teens just stayed together, curled up tightly enjoying the sunlight streaming into the Apollo cabin and the background noise of Austin practicing saxophone in the nearly soundproof practice room at the back of the Apollo cabin which the Hephaestus cabin had installed a few months previously.

Finally, Will pulled back.

“Nico, what about Percy?”

Nico sighed.

“I need to have a talk with Percy, like a proper talk at some point, I’m just not ready yet. I think… Percy’s one of the few living people I’ve known for quite a while, and after everything that’s happened, we never really had the chance to discuss anything. We just sort of met up every like six months, tragic stuff happened and then we went our separate ways. I think after we talk, then… maybe. Until then though…”

“I understand. Jason’s next then.”

“Jason’s next.”

PJOHOOTOA.

Will knocked heavily on the door to the Hades cabin. From inside he could hear obviously muffled screaming, and he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed. Connor Stoll had been the one to run to the infirmary to get him as soon as he noticed.

“Nico!” He called through the door.

The muffled screaming didn’t stop.

“Nico I’m coming in!” He called, before opening the door and hurriedly shutting it beside him so the others at camp who’d gathered unhelpfully outside the Hades cabin wouldn’t notice what was happening inside.

As he ran in he was surprised to see there weren’t shadows swirling around the cabin, but Nico’s blankets and pillows were strewn across the room as if they’d been hurled in a fit of anger.

Nico himself was curled into a corner, a decorative pillow shoved in his mouth as he bit down on it and screamed.

“Nico!”

Will hurried to his boyfriend glad that the son of Hades had chosen to bite into a pillow rather than anything else. 

As Will reached his boyfriend he immediately collapsed down beside him, holding his hands near him but not touching, just in case Nico was in excessive pain or wouldn’t want to be touched for any reason.

“Nico, sweetheart, what’s going on my darlin’?”

“Will?” Nico sobbed.

“Hey sweetheart, what’s going ok, are you okay?”

“Jason’s dead.”

Will froze.

“What?” He asked softly.

“Jason’s dead, I felt it. It hurts Will, it hurts.”

Will felt pain blossom in his chest, not only because of the loss of Jason, although that was a huge factor, but at how vulnerable and open Nico was being with him. For the most part Nico tried to hide how much pain he was in, even with his chronic pain, but here he was, being so open about his emotional pain.

“Oh sweetheart, I’m sorry.”

Will was sure tears had also begun streaking down his own face, but he ignored them. He knew Nico counted Jason as one of his first human friends, aside from Hazel, and so the pain must have been excruciating. 

“Nico, can I hold you?”

Nico looked up at him with bleary tear filled eyes.

“What if I hurt you? Everyone I-” He broke off as another sob wracked through his thin frame.

“No Nico, no, you won’t hurt my sweetheart.” Will said as he began completely sobbing too.

“Will, please. Please.” Nico begged.

“Do you want me to hug you?” Will asked again quietly.

“Please.”

“Okay darlin’ okay.”

Will moved so he was sitting on the floor, and he immediately pulled Nico into his lap, and the son of Hades immediately clung to him, burying his face into the, thankfully clean, scrub t-shirt Will was wearing. As Nico cried, Will rocked his boyfriend as tears too slid down his own face.

The pain in Will’s chest was painful, so painful. He wasn’t sure how to deal with it.

He remembered once Nico telling him the buzzing he’d heard about people who were dying sometimes gave him a headache, but it was a migraine if it was someone he cared about. Without a thought, the son of Apollo rested a hand on Nico’s head, gently easing the pain making Nico groan with relief amongst his sobs.

“It’s okay Nico, I’m here, I’m here for you.”

Nico nuzzled his face into Will’s scrubs, and Will just held him tighter.

For a while the two sat there together before Will’s mind briefly drifted off. He remembered the letter from Jason and how the son of Jupiter had sworn he’d see Nico again and they’d work on Nico’s touch starvation along with his mistrust of touch. They’d never get the chance now.

As that thought flittered through him, Will held his boyfriend tighter.

**Author's Note:**

> Whoops?
> 
> Next will likely be Percy.
> 
> I do intend to do at least one with Hazel and Frank and one with Leo, but not sure when yet :D


End file.
